Prior warning was given by me last night to all who follow me on Twitter. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop my commentating during ‘The Men Who Made Us Thin’ – so I thought it only fair to warn everyone! If you didn’t see the programme in question, you can watch it here.
This may seem a little controversial, but I actually agreed with quite a lot of the comments made by so-called industry ‘professionals’…even the comments made by Bernice Weston – an old Weight Watchers spokeswoman, who said, “when it comes to food, fat people are basically very stupid.”
I do not for one second mean that my fellow losers and I are stupid in the intellectual sense – far from it! What I refer to is that we make stupid choices at times in the quest to lose weight. As I said in last nights blog, the desperation to lose weight makes us throw out all that we know and all that the science shows us. If we restrict our calories too much, our bodies respond by telling our brains that we are starving. Our brains then tell our bodies to seek and store as much energy as we can – which equals cravings and weight loss plateaus. This is why diets – extreme diets – do not work.
First up on the show was the lovely chap I mentioned last night – Venice A Fulton. I sincerely hope that he has gone into hiding somewhere as I doubt that he will have many supporters after his appearance. To put it bluntly, the man is a grade A dickhead. I would not let him within ten foot of my niece or nephew or any child, teenager or impressionable adult. Last night, before watching the show, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I really did not think that anyone could be so foolish, misguided, immoral, and corrupt…I was wrong. The truly scary thing is that Venice now has a seven-figure book deal in the United States to further promote his trash. It seems that not only us Brits ignore the science and sense behind weight loss!
We were also given the opportunity to see the man behind ‘Slim Fast’ – the toxic sugary evil that I have tried on so many occasions in a desperate bid to shift pounds…all I ended up doing was shifting £££’s! I remember one Saturday spent driving around town to every Boots shop and Superdrug in order to stock up on the only flavours I would drink – chocolate and a mocha-type flavour…a waste of time in more ways than one. This chap sold Slim Fast to Unilever for £1.4 billion. He had Slim Fast in his fridge, and like the wily old codger that he is, he made a point of saying that he hadn’t just put it there for the cameras…hmmm?! His response about diets not working went something along the lines of, “Of course people put weight back on – they stop using our product.” At least he was honest!
The same could be said for the ex Chief of Finance at Weight Watchers, who said that their business model works because people fail. If people successfully lost weight and kept it off, then the business would not be there. He’s right I guess. If, rather than following a plan until we lose weight and then returning to our old ways of eating, we actually adopted new habits for life…who knows what might happen to big business and weight loss organisations involved in the dieting industry.
My biggest bugbear today is seeing all of those Tweets from smug eejits who say that ‘diets’ don’t work and that we should stop dieting altogether. Some have gone so far as saying that even healthy eating is a diet…so when I try and use the line that, for me, Slimming World is just healthy eating, they take umbrage with this too.
I agree that fad and extreme diets do not work – taking your calories much below the 1500 mark each day should be done under supervision as far as I am concerned. Not only does the body go into shock with fad diets, but the damage done to your mind is even more extreme. The constant cycle of diets, the emotional ups and downs, the self-esteem issues they cause…I won’t go on, because I have done so before!
Health and happiness should be the focus.
If your eating plan does not nurture both the body and mind, do not do it! If you have issues that are not related to food, food is not going to solve the problem – regardless of whether that food is healthy or not. You will still have those issues whatever your weight. Add to this that fact that losing weight leaves you with saggy skin and all sorts of wonderful new features, you really do need to deal with any body-related and emotional issues before you tackle any form of a change in habits.
This is why diets don’t work! We have unrealistic expectations of how wonderful life will be when we have shed our weight. Lara Croft I will never be…my arse will never see a pair of combat hot pants and I am unlikely to ever be performing acrobatics on elastic from my ceiling! But I can be confident about my abilities, I can enjoy my new found lightness, I can enjoy sharing my healthy mind and eating habits with my family…forget the way you look and concentrate on how you feel.
Right then, the usuals…
I woke up in another strop thanks to a lack of sleep. I have considered taking some herbal Calms, but the one and only time I did that, my dreams were almost hallucinogenic and freaked me out! So I will plod on and see how I get on over the next few weeks. I worked on my other half’s project, chatted to some lovely ladies regarding the Jessie event, went to see the horses, popped to Asda and have spent some time cutting out outfits from Simply Be that I fancy getting into at some point in time! Oh, I also took some progress pictures too – which I take every three months or so. I won’t be sharing them yet, so I guess it is a bit unfair to say how blown away I was when I compared my first set – which was taken after I had already lost 2st – with my set of pictures today. The difference is pretty clear to see and it bought home how far I have come. It also showed me how far I have to go. I also did my measurements and had lost a good few inches – I think in total I have lost 8.5″ off my chest, 12″ off my waist and 15″ off my hips. A bit less than I would have anticipated given that I have lost nearly 15st…I kind of thought that I might have lost the inches of a whole person! However, the fat loss and internal changes must be huge too – so it is all good. Tonight I am going to share a few hours with Jack Bauer I think. 
Breakfast: Banana porridge (6.5 syns).
Lunch: Tomato soup with cheese, spinach and onion toasties (2 x HEA and 2 x HEB).
Dinner: Sweet potato dhal with broccoli.
Snacks: Nakd bar (7 syns).
Brekkie and lunch has been identical for the past couple of days…thankfully, my soup is now consumed. I have no idea how people on shake-based plans cope with the monotony! Dinner was lovely, and based on a recipe that I put on my Facebook page yesterday. It had sweet potato, red lentils, spinach and the usual dhal stuff – turmeric, garlic, a bit of chilli. I used curry powder in place of garam masala. I then added some celery and mushrooms that needed using, and had broccoli with mine as I didn’t fancy rice with lentils and sweet potato. My Nakd bar tonight was lovely…I have one more flavour to try tomorrow and I will write a little review of them all on my website – all a bit posh putting it on the website, but I thought it might be nice to!
Exercise: I haven’t exercised much other than mouth and my Twitter fingers today!
Thank you for reading, and I hope that you have a wonderful weekend,
Weight Loss Bitch xxx
WeightLossBitch
On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!
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